Posted on 03/23/2016 7:19:21 PM PDT by jazusamo
The Republican establishment is sending in the cavalry for Ted Cruz, the latest unexpected twist in a presidential race that has defied all expectations.
Many prominent members of the GOP establishment intensely dislike Cruz. But they now acknowledge that he is the best option — perhaps the only option — to deny Donald Trumptheir party’s nomination.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush jumped on the bandwagon on Wednesday with a surprise endorsement of Cruz, describing the Texas senator as “a consistent, principled conservative” in a Facebook post.
Bush’s admiration for Cruz was noticeably lacking during the Floridian’s own run for the White House, when he mocked the Texan for political expediency. During one town hall meeting in New Hampshire, Bush said that Cruz had believed in immigration reform “until he went into the witness protection program.”
Bush is just the latest establishment figure to throw support to Cruz.
Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee, urged voters in Utah — a state in which he has deep roots — to support Cruz in caucuses Tuesday night. Though Romney stopped short of a full endorsement of Cruz, he went as far as to record robocalls on the senator’s behalf in which he said that it was “time for Republicans across the spectrum to unite behind Ted.”
Cruz won Utah in a landslide, though he lost the night’s biggest prize, the Arizona primary, to Trump.
Another late entry into the Cruz camp is South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who recently helped raise money for the Texan’s campaign. Less than a month before, Graham had joked that “if you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.”
The newfound enthusiasm for Cruz looks to some like an admission that desperate times call for desperate measures. But skeptics suggest the effort is doomed for precisely that reason.
“These guys look like all desperation and as if they have really no means, or ability, to speak to the core constituents who are supporting Donald Trump,” said Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. “At this last minute, it’s, ‘Now we support Ted,’ after you spent the best part of a year telling America how much you hate him.”
“It’s disingenuous,” Steele added. “People aren’t stupid. They see it for what it is.”
Cruz’s chances of winning the nomination outright appear small, as he now trails Trump by 275 delegates. The magic number to clinch the GOP nomination is 1,237.
Cruz currently has 463 delegates to Trump’s 738, according to a New York Times count. That means Cruz would need to win around 90 percent of the remaining 848 delegates in the contests. For Trump, the equivalent figure is just 59 percent.
But some Republicans suggest that if Cruz could get close to Trump’s number — and keep the businessman a significant margin short of 1,237 — there may be a chance of the nomination being wrested away from Trump at the convention.
Conversely, however, if Cruz does not significantly narrow Trump’s advantage, it will be all over, bar the shouting.
“If [Trump] loses, it has to be legitimate,” said Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who has worked for conservative presidential candidates in recent cycles, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.). “If he comes in 50 or 100 votes short, it’s going to be awful hard to take it off him. But if Cruz got to within 100, that could be different.”
Many insiders are dubious of the idea that the new tide of establishment support for Cruz will catalyze a movement of primary voters toward him. But they note that major fundraising players formerly allied with Bush could now come over to Cruz’s side.
With primaries still to come in large states with expensive media markets, including New York, New Jersey and California, campaign cash will be important. So will having money available right until the last day of voting in the GOP race, June 7.
The establishment shift could have another effect, too. The third candidate who remains in the GOP race, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, has been seeking to position himself as the standard-bearer for establishment hopes. But Kasich’s campaign is ailing badly: He has won only his home state and, on Tuesday night, came in behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in Arizona, despite Rubio having ended his campaign almost a week before.
The move by big centrist names toward Cruz is “sending a clear message to Kasich that it is time to get out,” said GOP strategist and Hill contributor Matt Mackowiak. “He is playing spoiler, he has no real path to the nomination. People who would be for him are choosing to be with Cruz because he has a better chance. That is a powerful thing in and of itself.”
Whether it will be powerful enough, however, is an entirely different question. The geographical territory for many of the remaining contests — particularly the large number of Northeastern states that have still to vote — favors Trump. So too does the absence of caucuses from the rest of the calendar, as those contests have been favorable to Cruz.
Looking at the overall picture, some Republicans say it may be too late.
“If they had taken Donald Trump’s candidacy seriously from the beginning — if they had not misread the message that was coming from the voters who were supporting him — perhaps this thing would have played itself out differently,” Steele said.
I voted for Romney. I actually thought he would be a better choice than Obama. I assume you disagree. It's a free country. Vote for Hillary if Cruz gets the nomination. It's legal.
No one can argue with the music’s got the magic!
Here is a thought. A person has cancer. The doctors comes in and says, “We have a drug that may cure you.”
Do you try the drug or not? Don’t you owe it to your family to try the drug?
Believe it or not, Cruz has supporters (38% to Trump’s 41% See http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/03/23/fox-news-poll-cruz-gains-on-trump-in-gop-race-clinton-up-by-double.html ). They want him to win the election. Would you try the drug?
If they want to give this election to Hillary then the GOPe should give the nomination to Trump. I have yet to see a poll where Trump does better against Hillary than Cruz or even Kasich.
You make these sort of really silly childish proclamations as if there was actually some reality behind them. There is none. Write in Trump. Better yet vote for Hillary. That's where your heart is. Anybody but Cruz.
Well, it was a hypothetical that was never going to happen.
I can bring up these hypothetical’s every day.
What if Obama endorsed O’Malley or Babs endorsed Santorum?
Hell, I don’t know. Live in the real world.
:^)
It’s your one chance for escape.
Don’t worry ...it’s looking like you will get your way ..Hillary it will be ..there is no way I will vindicate Lying Levin , Crazy Beck, and the rest of the GOPe for stealing it from Trump ...never going to happen ..i’ll write Trump in and wait for endless DIM rule ..that’s what you all want after all, isn’t it ?
A twist to the scenarios is that it is also possible, though not at all likely, that the candidates could go to the convention with Trump not leading in delegates, this rendering moot the idea that the nomination would be “stolen” from him.
One way would be for Cruz to win 65 percent of the remaining delegates, Trump wins the balance, Kasich wins nothing. Cruz ends up with 1072 delegates to Trump’s 1071. Cruz wins on second ballot using now-free Kasich, Rubio and other delegates without “stealing”, since Trump didn’t lead going into the convention.
Another way is for Kasich to start magically winning 67 percent of remaining delegates. Cruz wins 32 percent. Trump wins no more than seven delegates (I did say magic). Result: A three way tie with all three at 763 delegates. Kasich or Cruz get the nomination, again without “stealing” anything.
Of course some GOP fast dealing with the Rubio and other delegates prior to the first ballot would lower somewhat the required level of miracle for Trump’s opponents in these scenarios.
>>Well, it was a hypothetical that was never going to happen. I can bring up these hypothetical’s every day.
You could but some wouldn’t be as plausible and some wouldn’t make the same point. Anyway - perhaps this is the ‘timeline’ that you wanted, since you seemed to have avoided answering when I asked...
“Sessions, who’s got more conservative street cred than just about any member of Congress, can’t make up his mind whether to back Cruz for president or his other pal in the race, Donald Trump. He likes both of them too much to commit.”
That’s part of the “real world” before his decision. I guess you must have missed that....
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/sessions-trump-cruz-218353#ixzz43mxVAzaX
I’ll invoke Mark Twain and leave it at that...
The Utah was cooked by the Pubes, massive ballot box stuffing at the last minute. The FBI should investigate. This isn’t the first time these criminals have fixed a primary.
That was an article from 1/29/2016.
He decided and that part of history is over.
I did not avoid anything.
The delegate voting isn’t taking place now, it’ll take place after the war between Trump and Cruz has been played out in the media- or better I should say ‘by’ the media.
There will be hard feelings among their supporters, and damage to both of them. Watch how it plays out.
Yes, Cruz can get support from delegates that Trump can’t (IE:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3408439/posts) .
But it won’t help him if he’s damaged goods.
The only real problem with your scenario is that Cruz will be lucky to get 30% of the remaining delegates. Trump will get more than the 1237.
So when Trump shows up at the convention over the mark, and the GOP changes the rules, then the party is over. Literally.
All large political doctrines are rich in difficult problems -- problems that are quite above the average citizen's reach. And that is not strange, since they are also above the reach of the ablest minds in the country; after all the fuss and all the talk, not one of those doctrines has been conclusively proven to be the right one and the best.
Of course some GOP fast dealing with the Rubio and other delegates prior to the first ballot would lower somewhat
++++
Your version of my gut feel that things will not go well for Trump if we have a second and possibly subsequent ballots.
Fast dealing by the GOP seems certain. Like it or not Trump supporters, that dealing is most likely to benefit Cruz, a candidate disliked just slightly less than Trump by the GOP leadership.
Yes I’m with you.Did you sign the Trump petition?:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3412763/posts?page=2
There’s no doubt there was voter fraud in Utah by the Repubs in the caucuses, several FReepers have attested to it who attended them.
“Many prominent members of the GOP establishment intensely dislike Cruz. But they now acknowledge that he is the best option — perhaps the only option — to deny Donald Trumptheir party’s nomination.”
What sucks is that they are also FLOODING THIS SITE, claiming to be Cruz supporters, but ALWAYS giving themselves away by spending all their time attacking Trump.
REAL Cruz supporters don’t do that, as they have much more in common with each other than Cruz has with Romney (for example), and that the ONLY THING that Cruz can do, at this point, is force a brokered convention - and assure Romney (or Jeb, Linda, or Ryan) the nomination.
No, but I will ..
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